Overall the emotional advantages or disadvantages of marital status, employment status, number of children, parenthood and social class apply equally to men and women. We cannot explain the female preponderance in most mental disorders by detecting specific unfavourable patterns of sociodemographic correlates, suggesting that determinants of gender differences in common mental disorders are still far from being understood.
Obesity is associated with a low SES and some somatic disadvantages but not with other social or emotional disadvantages that have been often assumed to be very prevalent in that group. From the population-based perspective, obesity per se seems not to be associated with a higher risk for suffering from mental disorders, whereas relations between specific aspects of obesity and specific types of psychopathology still need further study.
Mental disorders are considered to be costly in terms of elevated rates of healthcare utilization and increased disability days. For the general German population there has been a lack of data on healthcare utilization and disability rates. The available administrative data are incomplete and problematic because they are based on routine clinical diagnoses that lack reliability. Using the German Health Interview and Examination Survey 1998/99 and its Mental Health Supplement (GHS-MHS) data, this paper examines healthcare utilization and disability associated with mental disorders in a representative sample of the general adult population (18-65 years, n=4181). After reviewing the size and treatment status of mental disorders in Germany, data about primary care or specialist consultations, inpatient treatment, and disability days in the last year are presented for the following groups: (1) subjects who never met the criteria of the diagnosis of a mental disorder, (2) subjects who had one or more mental disorders in the past but none in the past year ("remitted") and (3) subjects who currently (within the last year) met the criteria of one or more mental disorders. We found increased healthcare utilization as well as more disability days in those individuals with a current diagnosis. Remitted persons, however, showed results similar to those who never had a diagnosis of a mental disorder during their lifetimes. The results are consistent with the episodic course of many mental disorders and furthermore might indicate that treatment of mental disorders might contribute to a substantial reduction of direct and indirect illness costs.
Parenthood is positively associated with mental health, particularly for men. Most differences can be found for depressive and substance use disorders. Partnership seems especially important for parents since it does not affect prevalence rates of mental disorders among non-parents.
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